Ale to the chief: White House releases beer recipe

The White House has made public the recipe for two homemade beers that have become an object of fascination for beer drinkers everywhere.

White House Honey Brown Ale, believed to be the first beer brewed on the White House grounds, includes light malt extract, amber crystal malt, honey, gypsum, yeast and corn sugar.

The recipe was released Saturday while President Barack Obama was campaigning in Iowa.

Obama has been talking about the White House brew for weeks, but he and other officials had refused to disclose details of how it's made, despite an online petition and repeated questions from reporters. Obama even took a question on the beer recipe during a chat with the website Reddit.

Obama and his team frequently talk about the president's fondness for beer, and Obama has been photographed many times downing a beer, including an appearance at the Iowa State Fair last month.

Being identified as a beer drinker is an easy way for Obama to connect with voters and serves as a not-so-subtle reminder that his Republican rival Mitt Romney, a Mormon, doesn't drink.

Obama even held a "beer summit" after a white police sergeant arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates as he tried to get into his own home.

White House press secretary Jay Carney announced the beer recipe on Twitter, linking to a blog post entitled "Ale to the Chief" that included a video on the brewing process. The White House was careful to say the president paid for the materials used in the beer-making himself.

"With public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it" and release the recipe, wrote White House assistant chef Sam Kass, who brews the beer in the White House kitchen.

The White House included recipes for both the honey ale and a honey porter, both of which are brewed at the White House.

In the video, Kass is seen drinking the honey ale.

"That is one incredible beer if I do say so myself," Kass says, smiling. "America, I wish everybody could taste this but we don't quite brew enough."